Vulture Warm Ups

After breakfast this morning I headed out with no itinerary on a photo shoot. I wound my way on back roads to Marine On St Croix and then on to Osceola. In Osceola I had lunch at Taco Loco, and then headed home to finish my laundry.

As I was driving on Highway 4 west of Marine, I saw a vulture land in a dead tree beside the road. I then saw he (she?) had company so I did a u turn, parked on the side of the highway, switched to my telephoto lens and took a few pictures. This one is the best. I guess even turkey vultures need to do stretching exercises before heading out for a long day of soaring. Actually, I think they were warming themselves in the morning sun. Note how they are all oriented with their backs to the sun. I took about 100 shots today, rejected most of them, but ended up with some keepers.